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Nigeria: Islamic council overrules fatwa on journalist

Nigeria’s leading Islamic council, Jama'atu Nasril Islam, overruled the death sentence or fatwa passed on a local newspaper reporter for an article considered blasphemous by Muslims.

The northern state of Zamfara had urged Muslims to kill Isioma Daniel of Thisday daily as a religious obligation for her article dismissing Muslim opposition to the hosting of the Miss World contest in Nigeria. "The Zamfara state government has no authority to issue fatwas and the fatwa issued by it should be ignored," a statement signed by Lateef Adegbite, the council’s secretary general, said.